December 25th, 2025
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Reading the fine print, episode 4: Holiday promotions

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

I ran across a promotion from a hotel.

Join us for the holidays with this promotion code.

But if you read down to the fine print, it also says

Limited number of rooms available for each date. May not be valid during holiday and blackout periods or combined with any other discount or promotional offers.

The bold print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.

My guess is that this was standard boilerplate they attach to all their promotions, and they didn’t realize that it conflicted with the fact that it’s a holiday promotion.

Category
Old New Thing
Topics
Non-ComputerReading the fine print

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

3 comments

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  • raykoopa

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  • Alexander Werner

    Peanuts aren’t nuts, but they may be processed alongside them in the same factory. So the advice is technically correct.

  • John Perry 9 hours ago

    Reminds me of a similar boilerplate “mistake” regarding the allergy advice written on the bottom of a packet of peanuts which states: “May contain nuts”.

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